Hosted by the University’s Human Rights Society, Remembering Rwanda will take place at the University of Bedfordshire’s Luton campus on Tuesday 6 May from 7pm. It is open to the public and is free to attend.

The event will be introduced by the Vice Chancellor, Bill Rammell, and will feature a lecture by Alex Ntung, international peacemaker and expert on conflict, genocide and reconciliation. The Rwandan Ambassador to the UK, Williams Nkurunziza, will also speak at the event, and the Mayor of Luton, Councillor Sheila Roden, will attend in her official capacity.

Both the event and the Human Rights Society emerged from a course in international criminal law taken by third year honours students on the criminology and sociology degree programme.

“The events of the Rwandan Genocide formed a key part of their course.” Dr Helen Connolly, Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at Bedfordshire explained. “As a result, students were motivated to mark the 20th anniversary of the Genocide and to establish a human rights society that would give other students across the University the opportunity to think about and even act upon some of the major human rights issues of the contemporary world.”

The event will also host the official memorial torch for the evening, the Kwibuka 20 torch, and attendees will be invited to light the flame of remembrance.

The evening will end with a showing of the film, "Shooting Dogs", a realist story about one of the key events in the Genocide.